Who Was the Lowest Drafted Signee to Make the Majors?

Drafting in professional sports, as we all know, is an inexact science. History is littered with "can't-miss" prospects who did just that, and unheralded players who rose to stardom. The general trend, however, is in the direction of higher draft picks succeeding more often than lower ones.

The vast majority of players drafted in baseball never make it to the majors, and some choose not to play professional baseball at all. But of those late-rounders who ended up signing with the teams that drafted them, which ones actually defied the odds and made it to the big leagues?

That was the question on my mind when I compiled the following list. I went year by year to find out who the lowest drafted signee to make the majors was. There are some cases where a future major leaguer was drafted later than the player on the list, but he's disqualified because he didn't sign that year.

	Name	Team	Round	WAR
1965	Otis Thornton	Astros	68	-0.2
1966	Rusty Torres	Yankees	54	-0.5
1967	Roger Hambright	Yankees	67	0.0
1968	Tim Plodinec	Cardinals	33	-0.1
1969	Al Cowens	Royals	75	15.3
1970	Bake McBride	Cardinals	37	22.7
1971	Keith Hernandez	Cardinals	42	60.4
1972	Butch Alberts	Pirates	28	-0.1
1973	Eric Rasmussen	Cardinals	32	5.1
1974	Bobby Cuellar	Rangers	29	0.2
1975	LaRue Washington	Rangers	23	-0.2
1976	Jay Howell	Reds	31	15.0
1977	Neil Fiala	Cardinals	32	0.0
1978	Vance Law	Pirates	39	10.6
1979	Joel Skinner	Pirates	37	0.0
1980	Walt Terrell	Rangers	33	10.7
1981	Glen Cook	Rangers	24	-1.2
1982	Mike York	Yankees	40	-0.7
1983	Joe Klink	Mets	36	0.6
1984	Tom Gilles	Yankees	47	0.0
1985	Rico Rossy	Orioles	33	1.4
1986	Doug Linton	Blue Jays	43	-0.7
1987	Jeff Conine	Royals	58	19.5
1988	Mike Piazza	Dodgers	62	59.6
1989	Mike Garcia	Tigers	55	-0.6
1990	Danny Young	Astros	83	-0.4
1991	Charles Gipson	Mariners	63	0.8
1992	Anthony Chavez	Angels	50	0.4
1993	Jason Maxwell	Cubs	74	-0.1
1994	Jose Santiago	Royals	70	1.2
1995	Gabe Kapler	Tigers	57	8.7
1996	Travis Phelps	Devil Rays	89	0.8
1997	Orlando Hudson	Blue Jays	43	30.9
1998	Scott Atchison	Mariners	49	3.5
1999	Jason Botts	Rangers	46	0.3
2000	Anthony Ferrari	Expos	44	0.0

As one quickly observes via the WAR column, most of these guys didn't have very noteworthy careers. Only eleven finished their careers with more than five wins above replacement, as many as finished with a negative value. Still, you have to hand it to these guys, proving every doubter wrong and outplaying the apparent better choices. One of them, Mike Piazza, is even in the Hall of Fame, and the WAR leader is Keith Hernandez, who has a good case of his own.

I stopped the list at 2000 because I wanted to give any late-drafted guys who might have a late-career major league debut a chance to get to the Show. I may update this thing in the future.

Since this'll probably be my last post of the year, I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas!